Whatever I might be writing here today might seriously offend a lot of my friends and relatives,close and distant. I had never thought that I would be seriously writing on this socio-cultural issue,which was essentially a non-issue for me till today.Yet something compels me to write here,and I am curiously willing to look at the responses I might be getting because personally I need to 'feel' the sociological status an important aspect of contemporary circumstances,common to me and the reader.I need to know where we stand.
Sleepily cursing,over a mug of cold coffee,through the front page headlines of The Times Of India,dated 29th.September,2009-Mumbai edition,I felt a tight slap on my face,the persisting echo of the moral resonance of which I am still reeling under.
"Nepal ditches India,says caste system is akin to racism",screamed one headline.
"..despite Indian opposition,the United Nations all set to dub it a Human Rights violation",continued the headline in smaller fonts.
Nepal has emerged as the first country from South Asia to declare full support to the principles of a draft of guidelines expressed in a document issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council(the UNHRC)in May,2009 for "effective elimination of of discrimination based on work and descent"-the United Nations terminology for caste inequities.The fact that a conference-session of the UNHRC is going on in Geneva at the moment is of significant relevance here. The United Nations document seeks to activate"regional and international mechanisms" through the UN and its organs to negate all forms of caste discrimination.
India has always expressed formal aversion to internationalisation of its inherent caste problem ever since the issue was actively drafted in the UN platform.A close look at the documented draft guidelines announces that discrimination based on work and descent is associated with the notion of a purity-pollution antithesis,practices of untouchability,and that approximately 200 million people in the world are affected by it,which is deeply rooted in societies and cultures-a clear pointer towards India.
We all know that strict demarcation of castes in social interactions and untouchability are still unabashedly practised in rural India with medieval zeal,perhaps in dominant majority,both in Northern and Southern India.Significantly,the political dynamics has been markedly intricated with caste-based policies,particularly the Dalit issue taking centrestage.
We read about the "upper and lower clan" clashes of violence,mostly in the Hindi belt-Bihar,Madhya Pradesh,Uttar Pradesh(and the new states squeezed out of this region-Note:this new geographical configuration is the result of regional politics favouring casteim to a large extent),Rajasthan and Haryana.Gujarat and Maharashtra are no holy exceptions of course.
While the Hindi belt is afflicted with Thakur-Yadav mutual hatred,the sub-Deccan states which throw up pictures of advancement in all fields,better quality of academics and neo-intellect with higher literacy rates,present a paradoxical picture when it comes to casteist demarcation.We hear some of the cruellest stories of degradation of humanity,with 'superior' Brahmins(especially from the 'pristine' segment) oppressing the Untouchables in an vulgarly medieval way,seemingly taking inspirational references from ancient,holy texts that have lost their sacrosanct status long back in front of the educated and the learned.Quite a combination though - neo intellect and medieval casteist oppression! Shameful as they are,this picture of our country is nothing new.
But does this demographical picture round off the issue of casteism completely?I don't think so at this very moment.
When I look back upon my own bloodline,I discover some of the most shameful episodes of casteism a comparatively educated lot can manage to offer.I have seen marriages being arranged Strictly on the basis of caste(the attitude being matter-of-factly),ostracisation of people who got married outside the "permitted standard",and comments of sneer and demeaning jokes about people with particular surnames or apparent social backgrounds in everyday common-talk blossoming in kitchens as well as sitting rooms.In fact I have grown so used to this shameful carteist undertone(overtone at times)reflecting itself in my own blood in varying degrees,that I hardly bat an eyelid when I brush my eyes over advertisements of matrimony in newspapers and magazines of of intellectual distinction. I find casteism Everywhere.
Before I look around to identify casteism elsewhere, I should to look at the tradition of my own blood-line otherwise I shall be the biggest hypocrite in my own eyes.To identify distasteful episodes of casteist demarcation,I don't need to go back beyond 2 generations,both in the maternal and paternal lines.While certain ethics prevent me from specifically pointing out relatives( whatever goodwill is left between blood brothers and sisters in this age of fragmented relationships will simply bite the dust the moment they read this,and I am too coward to be ready enough to forego that ),I cannot deny the fact that they are guilty-of bluntly practising social exercises that have encouraged caste discrimination,of setting a poor example for the next generation,and of being blatantly ignorant of the fact they have been committing the same Social Sin of which they have had the gump of criticising more blatant discrimination which they might have observed to feel.Now that is Hypocrisy at its most pathetic personification.
Their children have observed the same right from childhood,and grown up to do the same without a tinge of guilt.So have I in a way because since I became a mature young adult,I have never felt in myself the urge to denounce the 'familial tradition' and come out with strong vocal protests.I have gone along with the tide,and might have even laughed with and enjoyed the sarcastic sneer relatives might have exhibited during informal conversations of frivolous moods. I have seen very close relatives fixing up matrimonial bonds after long periods of "omission and commission",purely on the basis of caste and even sub-caste(if that can replace GOTRA/GOTRO in English).
Today I am angrily speechless at my own past actions when I have gone on to attend to such ceremonial displays of blatant social discrimination of caste and class.I feel all the more angry and pathetic because I never felt that those social interactions were wrong when at the same time I have never refrained from criticising with hatred,incidents of social oppression on casteist lines elsewhere in India which I came to know of from newspapers and television.
An alter-ego of mine is seemingly voicing a meek protest against my belated realisation."India,with its glorious Unity in Diversity,is different from the entire world.You are wrong to correlate your bloodline's familial and social prejudices in the same bracket as the coarsely risque prejudice that underscores the social oppression of humanity along the line of caste in unenlightened rural India",it says. I am afraid I can no more agree with this voice which is perhaps an escapist fragment of my conscience. Ignoring everything else,I cannot aesthetically support anymore,the matrimonial texts highlighting Preconditions of Caste Equity in the "classified columns".If these are not gloriously examples of the caste-apartheid that continues to exist comfortably in our own educated minds to express itself in family attitudes over generations and resultant social interactions,what do they stand for to reveal?
And this is not the only example.I can immediately identify scores of behavioural episodes of discrimination that my ownbloodline has/had displayed as 'naturally traditional,and continuation of family heritage'.
Today I am likely to draw angry criticism from relatives and friends with hurt or offended sentiments.I am sorry for that.But I need answers which can make my own conscious self feel better.The coffee tastes too bitter.
At last I found one Indian hindu and a casteist realized that their family has been practicing discrimination and untouchability, and the feeling of guilty must encouraged, because it sets an opportunity for him or her to make changes in life to consider, treat and approach every other person as a human without any discrimination of any nature, let alone caste, which is the harbinger of all evils. I am profusely blessed to see the Very First hindu or a Casteist Indian to accept that they have been brought up and grew up with horrible, pathological mind set. I have been searching for this One first person my whole Blogging years that spans more than a decade!.... Let me tell you Thank You, spread the word, help your casteist people to enable themselves for a Change, a better change that will make India Equal to all.
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